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Nanostructured metals

Retaining ductility

Nature Materials volume 3, pages 351–352 (2004)Cite this article

Structural applications of nanostructured metals often require both high strength and good ductility. But although these metals usually have high strength, their ductility is often too low. New experimental work suggests that it is possible to retain the ductility of metals after nanostructuring by activating certain deformation mechanisms.

Nanostructured metals have structural features that are less than 100 nm in at least one dimension1. These features are usually produced by processing ('nanostructuring') metals in one of two ways: a two-step approach, such as inert gas condensation, or a one-step approach, such as severe plastic deformation (SPD).

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Figure 1: Normalized yield strength versus percentage elongation (ductility) for nanostructured metals.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Materials Science and Technology Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, 87545, New Mexico, USA

    Yuntian T. Zhu & Xiaozhou Liao

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  1. Yuntian T. Zhu
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  2. Xiaozhou Liao
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Zhu, Y., Liao, X. Retaining ductility. Nature Mater 3, 351–352 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1141

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